Sweet Fire BBQ

Around a year ago, Claremont, NH picked up a BBQ place on Mulberry Street. I would never have even known this place was there, except for taking a wrong turn a few months ago, so it had been on my chronic “I should check that out list.” Last weekend, as we were coming back from our trip to Bennington, we passed through Claremont again, so I figured we’d give the place a try.

Inside, the place is mostly a bar (with a good selection of draft beers, and a very good selection of bottles), with a few booths as well. The menu sports your basic variety of BBQ meats (ribs, chicken, pork, and brisket) and your typically appropriate sides (cole slaw, beans, cornbread, etc).

I opted for the brisket dinner with coleslaw and corn bread. The brisket was nice and tender, but otherwise, I was disappointed with it. There was little smoke flavor, and the sauce was more like sweet ketchup than a good BBQ sauce. The cole slaw was very good, however, with some nice cranberry notes.

I wanted to like this place, but, unfortunately, like 99.99% of New England BBQ places, it left me pretty disappointed. The people here are trying hard, but the sauce was sweet and not spicy, and the meat, while tender, just wasn’t smokey. I wish I could get some really good BBQ places up here just so people would know what they are missing.

Random Post

As a frequent volunteer for FIRST Robotics, I often find myself having to spend the occasional weekend as a guest judge staying in towns that I’m normally close enough to that I’d just visit them during the day, but due to the early hour that Robotics kicks off, it’s nice staying close by. This also gives me an opportunity to check out some of the local towns in a bit more culinary detail. This year, I was spending a lot of time in Windham, so I ended up getting a room in Nashua. I’ve enjoyed a few places around Nashua before, like Martha’s Exchange or Vietnam Noodle House, but this time, I was craving a gyro. Many other places I’ve lived, gyro joints were a dime a dozen, but in New Hampshire for some reason, they are somewhat rare (although Manchester has a few, like the very good Gyro Spot). But I had noticed that since my last visit, Nashua had added Main St Gyro, so I had to give it a try.